NBC’s News and
Information Service (NIS) began on June 18, 1975 with the boast “The Most
Important Day in Radio History.” When NIS died eighteen months later, it was
known as one of the biggest turds in American radio history. What happened to the 24/7 news network?
Common wisdom is
that NIS failed because it “was ahead of its time” and was too expense, both of
which are partially true. According to a
former NIS staffer who asked not to be named, NIS failed because of “Lack of imagination
and poor execution.” Plus it sounded awful – “group-think” at its worst. (Scroll
down to hear what NIS sounded like.)
Forty years later,
NIS could have been a major news source that might have challenged NPR News.
THE NIS STORY
In the fall of 1974
NBC Radio was trailing the other big nets ABC, CBS and Mutual. NBC’s O&O (Owned and Operated) FM
stations were languishing. The radio division, run by Jack Thayer, needed a big
new idea.
ABC Radio had revolutionized the business of
network radio when, in 1969, they began feeding four different newscasts each
hour designed for specific formats. At the time most radio stations
carried network newscasts. ABC’s bold
move allowed them to quadruple its number of affiliates.
Thayer held
brainstorming sessions to determine NBC’s next big thing. According to the
former NIS staffer several scenarios were considered. One option, pushed by
younger folks, was a live hourly version of Earth News, a counter-culture news
service delivered to stations via scripts and transcription discs.
At that time FM
listener penetration in many markets was beginning to top AM stations. NPR was
just getting started; their only national news program at the time was a
90-minute version of All Things
Considered. This was before Morning
Edition – some NPR stations didn’t even sign on until Noon.
Alan Walden |
In 1976 a 24/7
national news service was a new idea.
This was before CNN. The model
was local news & weather AMs such as 1010 WINS, KNX and KFWB. So NIS was
breaking new ground and the eyes of the biz were on them.
Thayer decided to
turn the project over to Alan Walden, an old-school AM radio personality, who
was successful running WBAL-AM in Baltimore.
THE ROLL OUT OF NIS
On February 10, 1975, The New York Times broke the news about
NBC’s NIS 24/7 news network that would make
full use of the resources of NBC News. At a news conference Thayer said NIS
would feed affiliates 50-minutes per hour of content. Stations would need to
pay $15,000 per month in the largest markets, $750 per month in the smallest
markets plus mandatory commercial carriage. Thayer predicted NIS would have
affiliates in 75 of the top 100 markets.
Walden went to work
building the NIS staff of over 200 people. Many of the founding staff came from
AM news powerhouses like 1010 WINS, WCBS and KNX.
Walden crafted a
format clock with something for everybody: Headlines, features, commentaries,
vox pop and interviews, all sliced and diced into short chunks of time to fit in the tight clock.
When NIS debuted on
June 18, 1976, it had fewer than 50 affiliates. Even some of NBC’s O&O FMs
refused to carry it. Many stations
balked at the high cash fees and onerous commercial requirements. So NBC began
marketing NIS as an updated version of Monitor,
a weekend news service that was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.
By Spring 1976,
most of the NIS affiliates were old beat up AM stations, many former Top 40
giants like KRUX in Phoenix, KUDL in Kansas City and WPOP in Hartford. The
ratings weren’t great.
I looked up the
Spring 1976 Arbitron ratings published by Duncan’s American Radio found on the
American Radio History website [link], a truly amazing historical resource. At
that time NIS was on 10 FM stations and 25 AM stations in rated markets. Only 19 stations were in the top 100 radio
markets.
There were also
audio quality issues. Andy Denemark, now Executive VP for Programming at United
States, joined NBC in 1980 to market The
Source, NBC’s service for AOR stations. Some people at The Source
previously worked at NIS and told Denemark about technical faults at NIS:
[NIS was] delivered on phone lines in those
days... a 5k equalized line into major markets, a 3.5k un-equalized line into
smaller towns. The high cost of those “webs” of wires (for which the phone
company charged by mileage) was outrageous.
According to
Arbitron, NIS stations had around 2,000,000 estimated weekly cumulative listeners. Most of them only used the NIS overnight. The end was in sight.
The New York Times
reported on November 4, 1976, NBC had pulled the plug on NIS. There were fewer
than 70 affiliated stations. NIS had
lost more than $20,000,000 (close to $400,000,000 in 2016 dollars). Heads rolled.
UPDATE 9am 6/4/16: NIS staff found out they were :toast" at a staff meeting conducted by Dick Wald, then the head of NBC News, the morning after they covered the 1976 election.
The notion that the staff found out NIS was cancelled from the news wires is a mistaken urban legend.
UPDATE 9am 6/4/16: NIS staff found out they were :toast" at a staff meeting conducted by Dick Wald, then the head of NBC News, the morning after they covered the 1976 election.
The notion that the staff found out NIS was cancelled from the news wires is a mistaken urban legend.
After NIS folded,
there was never another serious attempt at a commercial 24/7 news service. Now
NBC is out of the radio news businesses.
WHAT NIS SOUNDED LIKE
As I said above, I
think it sounded awful. Give a quick listen to a two-minute scoped version of
NIS on WNWS-FM, New York, during afternoon drive in August 1976.
UPDATE 2pm 5/3/15: According to Jim Farley, who was at NIS and now is at WTOP, this aircheck was afternoon drive. However my source for the audio says it was a tape of the 6pm hour.
UPDATE 2pm 5/3/15: According to Jim Farley, who was at NIS and now is at WTOP, this aircheck was afternoon drive. However my source for the audio says it was a tape of the 6pm hour.
Direct link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDXXqqo4_sc&feature=youtu.be
HYPOTHETICAL “WHAT COULD
HAVE BEEN”
The following is completely
conjecture.
The former NIS staffer
(who did not want to be identified) mentioned that one alternative plan for
what became NIS was to create an alternative news service for Album Oriented
Rock (AOR) stations. Rock on FM in 1976
was becoming a major success. Stations like WNEW and WPLJ in New York, KMET and
KLOS in LA and WXRT in Chicago dominated listening by folks under 40. What if instead of an AM clone like NIS, NBC
would have set up a specialized news service for AOR and other contemporary
rock stations.
Suppose NBC had
decided to bring in programming folks who understood the potential for FM news
to reach younger listeners with a more modern presentation style and
sensibility. In 1976 key creators of NPR such as Jim Russell and Jay Kernis
were guns for hire. Both had worked in
commercial broadcasting and both new how to do a start up with a lean budget.
Suppose they
attracted the best and brightest young reporters and storytellers.
Suppose it was
still in business when MSNBC got a life in the mid 2000s.
Suppose Rachel
Maddow (a seasoned radio vet with Air
America) did a TV, online and FM simulcast truly using the resources of NBC
News. I think it would have worked.